Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990 TAG: 9004250086
SECTION: FOUNDERS DAY '90 PAGE: VT10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Kemmerling is an associate professor of industrial engineering who received this year's Sporn Award for excellence in teaching engineering subjects. Before coming to Virginia Tech, he spent almost 30 years in the U.S. Air Force where he went through combat training, attended academic instructor school, lectured at the Air Force Institute of Technology and worked on cockpit design as a specialist in human factors engineering (the study of how human interact with machines).
His military experience has left him with a rich fund of "war stories" to entertain his students. Instead of abstract examples out of a book, his students are told about "real people with real muscle, real blood and bone . . . and what happened to them as a result of bad design."
After all, Kemmerling says, being a good educator isn't simply a matter of imparting information - it's imparting information in a way that makes it memorable. "Just speaking the words doesn't make you any good." But "blood and bone" stories will leave students forever convinced of the importance of good design.
He has failed, he says, if he doesn't both entertain and educate his students. ("Who says you can't have fun and learn at the same time?") And if his students do badly, it's probably his fault, not theirs, he says. ("If I'm good enough at what I do, they won't fail.")
Kemmerling, who has a master's degree in experimental psychology from Oklahoma State University, first came to Virginia Tech in 1981 as a visiting lecturer. He discovered then how much he enjoyed teaching, and was encouraged by the favorable response he received from students and faculty.
He retired from the military the next year - he would have had to go another tour, he says, and he dreaded the prospect of serving in Alabama again or at the Pentagon. When Tech's industrial engineering department beckoned, he was only happy to come. He has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses each term, including Methods Engineering, a keystone course for industrial engineering.
Not only a committed teacher, Kemmerling is also an active researcher and a busy administrator. He has been working on assessment and adaptation schemes for the disabled and the aged, and has consulted extensively with academic groups and industries.
He chairs the department's undergraduate program and advises the student chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. He also served as assistant head of industrial engineering for three years.
The Sporn award is his third teaching honor. In 1987 and 1989, the Tech chapter of Alpha Pi Mu (the industrial engineering honor society) presented him with its "Outstanding Faculty Member" award.
Being a good teacher, Kemmerling says, is hard work. "You have to enjoy it and to want to do it well. Students sense when a professor enjoys what he's doing."
Teaching is also a lot like acting. "When I'm standing in front of a class, I'm putting on a performance." And, Kemmerling says, after all these years, "I still get nervous and excited, my heart still pounds. But how many people get to grab the brass ring twice?"
by CNB